NEW YORK, Dec 23 (APP): Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing doctors to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety, according to media reports.
The Director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, was quoted as saying that obeying the order to shut down was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out.
“We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time,” Abu Safiya told Reuters, the British news agency.
“We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside,” he said.
The hospital is one of the only ones still partially functioning in the once crowded northern edge of Gaza, an area under intense Israeli military bombardment for nearly three months in one of the most punishing operations of the 14-month-old war.
Abu Safiya said the military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse. Photos from inside the hospital showed patients on beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows.
Israel says its operation around three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – is targeting Hamas militants. Palestinian officials accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone.
